Facebook Lite launches

Facebook has rolled out a faster version of Facebook in the States, and in India.

"Facebook Lite", is a stripped down version of the social networking site said to be originally created for countries where internet access is slow.

Despite this however, it Facebook has gone live with the new version in the US, offering Facebookers an alternative way of accessing their pages, without the flab of applications and the new design.

Facebook told TechCrunch: "We decided to roll out Facebook Lite in the US to give users a simple, expedient alternative to facebook.com, and hope that it will fill this need".

In what may be seen by some as an admission from Facebook that the recent re-designs have left the site bloated, slow and not easy to use, Facebook also says:

"We have also found that people who are new to Facebook tend to be most interested in a simpler experience, focus on establishing their network of friends and communicating with them by writing on their walls, sending messages, and looking at pictures. We have introduced the Lite site with these new users in mind".

UPDATE: Facebook has confirmed to Pocket-lint that Facebook Lite will be rolling out across English-language versions of the site over the next 48 hours.

A spokesperson says: "This is still a beta version, so we will not be proactively messaging users; they will just be able to access http://lite.facebook.com if they hear about it".